Apr 3, 2006
Interview With The Pirate Party
On Jan 1, 2006, Rick Falkvinge (pictured below) founded the Pirate Party in Sweden, beginning a new era in the fight for legitimacy of P2P. Rick was tired of the MPA/IFPI lobbyers and politicians who would not listen to reason, so he resorted to taking to the streets in a battle for voters in this fall’s general elections.
LinuxP2P: How did you guys come up with the idea of creating a whole new political party for file-sharing and privacy?
Falkvinge: Basically, because the politicians didn’t listen to their voters, but to yesterday’s industry interests instead, which led them to criminalize 20% of their voters (1.2 million file sharers, 5.2 million voters). There have been many good writers on the issues, which the politicians have chosen to ignore. So we figured the only way to get their attention was to go head-on in a battle for voters.
LinuxP2P: What are your main goals?
Falkvinge: To stir a debate about the hidden costs of copyright and patents, and to stop the big-brother society trend. This needs to be done on a European level; we view Sweden as a beachhead in this aspect. You gotta start somewhere.